Responding to the Integrated Review
Contributors
Ben Baxendale-Smith, Andrew Dorman, Sam Goodman, Ben Horton, David Lawrence, Heather Staff and Isabelle Younane
Top lines
A comprehensive review of Britain’s defence and security, and how this relates to wider issues like foreign policy, development, climate change and trade, is very welcome.
The emphasis on national resilience in areas such as public health and climate change - as well as the incorporation of science and technology policy - suggests a much closer alignment between domestic and foreign policy than previous governments have pursued.
However, this Integrated Review prioritises rhetoric over substance, and fails to meaningfully engage with the difficult trade-offs involved with the UK leaving the EU, charting our own course on trade, tackling climate change, modernising the Armed Forces and building international relationships while protecting national sovereignty.
This ‘cakeism’ is particularly evident in the report’s China policy, which aims to maintain Britain’s trade and investment relationship with China while also protecting sensitive industries and criticising China’s actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
In other areas, the review lacks tangible policy proposals. For instance, on climate change, it is not clear how foreign policy and trade deals will need to change to respond to the climate crisis, and there is a lot of faith placed in future technological solutions.
International development, despite being part of the Review’s title, is largely neglected. There is no discussion of the effect of planned aid cuts, either in terms of real-world impact for developing partners, or for the UK’s soft power standing, and no clarity on when the Government intends to return to the 0.7% target.
Labour should take the opportunity to highlight these inconsistencies and challenge the Government to produce concrete policy proposals which engage with the difficult decisions facing the UK’s defence and foreign policy in the years ahead.
Image: British Army personnel during the NATO Saber Strike exercise at Adazi training area, Latvia on June 17, 2014. US Army Europe via Flickr.